TWA 800 Investigation Cover-Up:
The Proof

by Ian Williams Goddard

Traces of the explosive PETN (used in both bombs and guided missiles) were found on the debris of TWA flight 800, which crashed off the Long Island shore on July 17, 1996 killing 230 people. The crash has been classified as an accident [1].

The finding of PETN was, however, not revealed to the public at an FBI or NTSB press conference. The only reason this most significant discovery became known to the American people was because several high-level investigators leaked the informa
tion to the New York Times [2].

According to Reuters [3], the first FBI reaction to this leaked report was an official "no comment." When chief FBI crash investigator James Kallstrom was asked how long he had known about this evidence, Reuters reported that "Kallstrom would not
disclose how long he had known of the findings."

According to the New York Times article [2]:

The [positive] test was conducted as long as two weeks ago, investigators said. But instead of announcing the finding then, F.B.I. officials decided to take extraordinary precautions to keep the
findings secret as long as possible.
The information was so tightly controlled that only three or four
senior investigators knew about
it until several [others]...were
told...at a private briefing...

The FBI withheld this major evidence for two
weeks, and the only reason it ever got out was
due to a leak. During those two weeks what were
we being told by Kallstrom & Co.? That they had
no definite evidence of a missile or bomb on
board. Were we being lied to? Was there a coverup underway? The simple and indisputable answer
is "yes."

Yet, even as explosives residue was found on the
bodies of victims [4] and on the outside of the
plane [2], the FBI moved quickly to sweep away
the evidence that had become know to the public
by suggesting that the explosive material must
have been inadvertently tracked into the plane
by Gulf War soldiers [5] or as a result of bomb
training supposedly conducted inside the plane
a few weeks before [6].

COVER-UP BY INTIMIDATION

When asked by the press about the leaking of
truth to the public, Reuters [3] reported that
"Kallstrom appeared irritated... He said if the
information had come from anyone on his staff,
he would fire them."

That -- quantified as fear of dishonorable discharge -- is intimidation. We've just seen proof
of cover-up and now proof of intimidation. It is
clear that this intimidation was initiated as a
means to enforce and preserve the cover-up.

If those who reveal the truth are to be fired,
then only those who help to suppress the truth
will remain hired. The facts prove that truth
suppression is the job for which FBI personnel
are being employed. With this proof of intimidation in hand, the question "How could they
keep so many people quiet?" is answered loud
and clear.

INVESTIGATORS CALL FBI A "BLACK HOLE"

Investigators at the reconstruction hangar in
Calverton, New York consistently scored positive
PETN "hits" with their "highly sophisticated"
Egis bomb-detection system. However, secondary
explosives tests conducted at FBI headquarters
in Washington D.C. were consistently negative
on the same debris. The second negative tests
always superseded the first positive tests.

According to the New York Times [6], with their
positive tests constantly contradicted by the FBI in D.C., hangar investigators began to suspect that these FBI findings were part of an
attempt to cover up the truth. As the New York
Times reported:

Certain federal agents, calling
the FBI's laboratory in Washington a "black hole," remained convinced that the bureau was hiding its positive lab confirmations.

To put it bluntly, the investigators believed
the FBI was lying. The above citation is the
testimony of investigators telling us that they
believe the FBI is conducting a cover-up. The
evidence suggests that while the truth stops
at the top, the rank-and-file investigators are
generally honest and through them reports have
gotten the most true picture.

One means, apart from intimidation, for the
cover-up planners on the top to prevent leaks
of truth from those partial to the truth below
them is to break the investigation into many
pieces, thereby preventing any one person from
seeing and thus revealing the whole picture.

COMPARTMENTALIZATION

It appears that even within the investigation, investigators operate in a atmosphere of pervasive secrecy. is Describing day-to-day conditions inside the TWA 800 debris reconstruction operation -- the center of the investigation -- the New York T
imes [6] reported that:

Word spread by whispers and
winks. The secrecy, even among
the federal agents, had people
waiting to find "secure lines"
before telephoning colleagues.
The investigators invented loaded phrases of circumspection.

Such an effort of investigators to hide information not only from the press but from other investigators clearly suggests that the investigation has been broken down according to plan into
compartmentalized units that hide information
from each other. Such organization ensures that
nobody can see the big picture and thus that
everyone below the top is mostly in the dark.

Such compartmentalization is the classical structure of secretive government operations. The CIA,
for example, compartmentalizes knowledge of its
operations, allowing a given agent to know only
as much as they need to know to perform their
assignment.

We can see such compartmentalization even in the
reconstruction, where, unlike past crash reconstructions, TWA 800 has been or is still being
(?) reassembled in at least three separate hangars.
In each hangar a separate portion of the plane is
being rebuilt [7]. Like the blind men and the
elephant, if they cannot see the whole elephant,
they cannot see the elephant.

MOST INVESTIGATORS HONEST AT FIRST

The evidence proves that rank-and-file investigators are being intimidated into silence against
their initial and natural inclinations to tell
the truth. Such instinctive honesty is why, in
case after case, we get the truth from a given
investigator but then silence, indicating that
after their wrongful respect of the truth they
were censured.

For example: after Medical Examiner Dr. Charles
V. Wetli informed reporters that passengers in
the forward portion for the plane were hit hardest -- indicating that the major event was in
the front, not the center of the plane -- the
New York Times [6] reported that Dr. Wetli and
others then "backed off even the shadings of
meaning their examinations had produced. An explosion had happened and killed people was as much as he could say."

The statement, "x was as much as he could say,"
means: x was as much as he is ALLOWED to say.
Forget about the most severe trauma being experienced by victims in the front of the plane.
Forget about it! The event simply killed people,
that is all you need to know, that is all Dr.
Wetli is allowed to say. The truth is forbidden,
the truth is covered away.

CODE OF SILENCE

TWA pilots who were interviewed by the St. Louis Post Dispatch [8] said that they had come to the
conclusion that "people who had information concerning the explosion, including those who reported seeing a missile, had been pressured to
remain silent."

When a reporter from the Southampton Independent
[9] was granted an "exclusive behind-the-scenes
tour" of a Coast Guard station where debris were
gathered -- a location that is "off-limits to the
public and the press, except with special permission" -- she observed ATF agents and noted that
"The press is forbidden to talk to their staff,
or to the FBI agents on site."

Not only is the press "forbidden to talk" but inversely
ATF and FBI agents are prohibited from
speaking to the press. There is therefore a manditory universal code of silence. As we can see,
every effort has been made to keep the American
people separated from the truth about TWA 800.

TOP SECRET DEBRIS

The FBI's desire to conceal the debris from public view was clear from the start. The FBI even
made sure that all photographs were developed on-site so as to prevent the possibility that the
truth might leak out through private-sector photo
shops. As Newsweek (08/5/96) reported:

FBI men stopped NTSB officials
from photographing the wreckage because "they didn't want our
people taking pictures and sending them out to Snappy photo"
as opposed to a secure FBI lab...

Indeed every effort was made to keep debris out
of public site. In an article about the recovery
scene on the public beach after the crash, Newsday
[10] described a boathouse that was used to store
the evidence that the Navy crash-recovery team
was bringing ashore, observing that:

[T]he boathouse...remained cordoned off by police tape. Windows
in the boathouse are blocked with
cardboard, and the media is forbidden to take pictures because
investigators don't want evidence
photographed.

Logical analysis: what did the FBI-Navy do to the windows? They covered them up. What did they
do to our eyes by default? They covered them up.
What does the physical evidence prove that
the authorities have been conducting? The evidence overwhelming confirms that the authorities
have been perpetrating a cover-up of the truth about TWA 800.

THEORY SUPPRESSION

Not only is the FBI hiding (a) the debris, (b)
the reconstruction, (c) the radar records, (d)
the satellite records, (e) the photo negatives,
but throughout the investigation, even before the gathering of debris, the FBI and NTSB have
constantly favored a bomb on-board or mechanical
failure even when they are said to have zero supporting evidence, over the missile theory with
over 150 consistent and uniformly triangulated
eyewitnesses accounts of a missile hit according
to investigators [11].

If theory X has 0 truth-points and theory Y has
150 truth-points, and yet Mr. Jones prefers and
promotes theory X over Y, then logic clearly dictates that Mr. Jones must have an aversion to the
truth and that he must want to suppress and cover
up the truth. The FBI-Navy-NTSB cover-up is just
so simple to see.

CONCLUSION

The numerous pieces of evidence presented in
this report prove beyond a reasonable doubt that
a superstructure of silence, circumspection, deception, and intimidation have been constructed
around the official TWA 800 crash investigation.
The logical and obvious objective of this superstructure is to conceal and suppress the truth
about the sudden and tragic annihilation of TWA
800, which snuffed out the lives of 230 people.

The American people have a right to know the
truth about the crash of TWA 800. If the "government of the people" does not tell the people the
truth about the deaths of hundreds of the people,
but instead works to suppress the truth, then the
government is not the servant but the master of
the people, and a ruthless master at that. Such
an abhorrent reality is a wholesale desecration
of the founding principles of this nation.